What year did you catch your first Striper on a fly?

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

In the 1980s Joe Shirshac took hundreds of fly fishers to the Brooks River in Alaska in July for the fresh run Sockeye Salmon which ran 4 to 8 pounds and bigger.

There were big Brown Bears there that eat many salmon. Anglers are fishing right with the bears which is pretty wild.

Joe figured out that 8# Maxima was the heaviest tippet material they could use and still break off a salmon when the bears were chasing them.

Sounds pretty scary to me.

__________________________________________________ _________

One of our friends returned from the trip to the Brooks and handed me the bottom of his fly rod. All that was left was ~13" of the butt section with only the cork grip and reel seat plus the fly reel and some backing.

He said a big Brown bear was chasing his salmon so he ran back up to the bank and tried to break the fish off. He snapped the rod right above the cork and the front of the rod went down the line toward the fish.

He still couldn't break off the fish so he took his knife out and cut off the fly line.

I guess it was a pretty wild incident?

[Dave Sellers]

Bill, great question.

I've long since given up shameless bragging on the internet, even though it's in my nature! But this year I passed two milestones, so what the hell.......

My first fish was caught on Dan Blanton's brand new boat "Prime Time". It was the very first fish caught on Prime Time back in 1997, ten years ago. Dan was incredibly patient with me and my uspeakably bad casting and did everything he could think of to get me on a fish. Finally, he set me up on a weed edge that I could reach with my 30 foot corruption of a fly cast and I hooked a two pound striper. Within a year I purchased my own boat which I named "Juney" and on January 31, 2007 I passed the 15,000 striper mark on "Juney" (this is the boat total). 15,000 fish in 10 years are my two milestones. I'm an unapologetic fish counter (primarily because I have kept a detailed journal for most of the past 10 years.) The lions share of the fish came out of San Luis. The years I really put time into the lake include some of the best fly fishing years that lake has ever seen. Hundred fish days on schoolie bass were not uncommon and many days included over a dozen fish above 10 pounds. That was a special time at the lake! My largest fish was 48 inches, out of San Luis, my largest Delta bass was 40 inches and the largest fish taken on Juney was Matt Havelock's 58 incher out of the delta.

The combination of a fantastic mentor, Dan Blanton, loads of free time and a lot of great fishing buddies equals wonderful memories of fun days of fishing. With my "earning years" threatening to cramp my style fishing-wise I had to jump on your question, Bill and use it as a flimsy excuse to reflect on one hell of a lot of fun over the past ten years. Long live stripers!

Dave

[JerryInLodi]

I certainly agree about tippet strength. I use 15# Maxima, not so much for fighting fish but for pulling the fly through junk I hook up on while fishing. The weeds are the delta are really thick in some areas and sometimes you really need to drop the rod tip and pull hard just to drag through.

I know I could shatter my 9 weight easily if I tried to put 15 pounds pressure on a tippet using the rod flex alone.

[Flycanoe]

Well, haven't caught one yet, I am 0 for 1 on my striper fly fishing trips last year. But I recently attended a striper fly fishing seminar by Bill Nash with my local fly club and got a lot good advice. So I hope get my first one this spring once the bite gets going.

[Dave Sellers]

Regarding tippet strength and rod breakage.........

While it's true that a relatively light tippet to can break a rod, that's not where a catch and release big game angler should focus his attention.

Typically tippets above 10 pound class arn't at much risk with any sized striper, as long as there isn't much around in the way of structure or weeds. You can easily break a rod on 10 pound tippet. However, that's not where tippet comes into play. Tippet strength is most valuble when a big fish takes a fly at the boat and you don't have time to let the line go fast enough..........10 pound or even 20 pound will snap in an instant when it's "straight lined" (even for a split second) on a big bass. Or, if you need to straightline to avoid structure, you are at much greater risk of losing a trophy bass if you put your confidence in a tippets ability to break a rod and leave it at that. But more importantly, when you want to land a fish , particularly when he's at the boat near the end of the fight, you don't want to mess with light tippets. This is because you want to grab the line and pull the line toward the boat with the fish attached and not have to let it go every time the fish surges or turns his head. This will needlessly drag on the fight and risk a belly up bass and keep you from getting back in the game. I personally don't use anything less than 20lb mono with a bimini for stripers. It just makes for more fun. Less time out of it and more confidence that the resource is left undamaged.

Tippet strength should be discussed in the context of it's greatest exposure to failure (for the reasons I outlined)...........and if a bent rod is in the equation, you're no where near red line.


Dave

[Mike McKenzie]

Well, I can't resist since this thread turned into a discussion on tippet or leader strength. I think that most of you folks are kinda' missing the point I made on another post. It ain't about whether or not you can break certain test leader with a what ever wt rod with this or that much bend in the rod. It's about how long it takes to get a big striper to hand and released so it doesn't die because of what you do. In most instances of too long of a fight with a large striper, the odds are the fish will die regardless of the fact that it swam away "OK" and especially in water temps above the upper 60's. As alluded to in a post above big stripers are getting pretty rare these days. So why put them at risk by fishin' with light tippets?? In order to get the fish to hand in a timely manner sometimes "draggin' the sucker in" by pointin' the rod at the fish and pullin' as hard as you can is what it takes. Don't tell me you can't break a an 8 or 15 lb tippet pullin on a fish this way. I've had numerous big stripers break 20 lb straight leaders (and not at the knots!) by gettin' in a little bit to much of a hurry and tryin' to drag them in within the first minute or two, a little bit too soon! Again, rod size/wt doesn't matter but tippet size does. People talk about landing big stripers with 8 lb tippets etc. but they don't say how long it took to get the fish to hand. You can't drag a big striper in fast enough with lite tippets, if you are doing things right (speed wise) you'll get broke off every time. If it takes you 8-10 minutes or longer you might as well take it home and eat it because even if the fish swims away it will probably die with in a day or two.

Here's a quote on the subject from the July 2006 Fly Rod & Reel magazine..
" Several years ago, a study by Mark Malchoff of New York Sea Grant did indeed determine that striped bass, particularly the older larger fish, would die two to three days after release due to lactic acid build up.
What is lactic acid build up? Physical exertion from a particularly long fight causes an oxygen deficiency in the tissue, forcing the muscles to function without oxygen (anaerobically) which in turn causes lactic acid build up in the muscle tissue which diffuses into the blood. This subsequently causes the pH in the blood to drop. Even slight changes in pH can cause disruptions of the metabolic processes which may ultimately kill the fish. If the fish is handled little and released quickly, its blood pH usually returns to normal and the fish survives. But, while fish may appear alive after a long fight, when released the imbalance in the blood chemistry may kill them as much as three days after being caught. This is why, with any species, it’s important to choose the right tackle for the job and to not fight that fish for a long time. The bottom line is the more stress you put that fish under, the more chance it has of dying. This is not speculation, this is a fact".

For those that want to know about Sea Grant here's a little info..

Environmental stewardship, long-term economic development and responsible use of America’s coastal, ocean and Great Lakes resources are at the heart of Sea Grant’s mission. Sea Grant is a nationwide network (administered through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA]), of 30 university-based programs that work with coastal communities. The National Sea Grant College Program engages this network of the nation’s top universities in conducting scientific research, education, training, and extension projects designed to foster science-based decisions about the use and conservation of our aquatic resources.

Sea Grant is NOAA's primary university-based program in support of coastal resource use and conservation. Our research and outreach programs promote better understanding, conservation and use of America’s coastal resources. In short, Sea Grant is “science serving America’s coasts.”

No one "needs" to use 20 lb tippets or leaders. I think that it is better to err on the side of fish survival as opposed to the "sport" of the "fight". All this aside, Dave Sellers in the post above gives other good reasons for stronger tippets.
End of Rant!!
Mike

[Katz]

There is something great about really puttin' the wood to a big striper too

Katz

[Sturmer White]

I am almost afraid to tell you guys this.
Catching my first striper with a fly was not that long ago,but,In 1940 when I was a pup. We used to troll Whiskey slough and others with my dad.The norm was 5 fish each and none released. All larger than today.We used a heavy jig and a red head jointed plug about 10 inches long. There were hooks hanging all over them.No wonder there are less fish today.
Live and learn the hard way.
Sorry about that!

[David Lee]

[Hairstacker]

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